“At the very least, multiply it by ten.”
“One thousand ryō per toothpick, with a minimum order of one hundred.”
“That would be 100,000 ryō.”
“Now that’s a decent return. We could just about make it work!”
Old Man Yoshida picked up the tea on the table and took a sip.
He showed not the slightest bit of shame over his ruthless pricing.
It was as though selling something at such a price was simply the natural order of things.
Looking at the disdainful yet confident expression on Yoshida’s face, Hatake Shibu suddenly felt that he still had a long way to go.
Becoming a truly ruthless capitalist was far too difficult!
Perhaps his conscience was simply too strong.
No.
From now on, he absolutely had to hold his chest whenever he negotiated with people.
Only then could he suppress his conscience and make even more money.
Thinking about it carefully, he was doing this for their own good.
How could he become stronger without money?
And how could he deal with all those old foxes lurking within the shinobi world without becoming stronger?
“Doesn’t that seem a little too expensive?”
Uchiha Obito, sitting beside Shibu, looked rather shocked.
Yoshida smiled and explained,
“You’re selling it too cheaply.”
“If you don’t charge the nobles enough, they won’t even want it.”
“Only expensive things can demonstrate their status.”
“The more expensive something is, the more desperately they’ll want it.”
Uchiha Obito nodded excitedly.
The more money Shibu made, the more money he would make too.
He was currently receiving both a salary and a commission.
Whenever he brought in someone through his own connections, he would receive thirty percent of the profit.
Shibu also hoped that once Obito became rich, he wouldn’t keep staring at just one girl all the time.
That could be dangerous.
There are plenty of fish in the sea.
Without Rin, without the Mangekyō Sharingan, there were still plenty of other girls waiting for him.
He needed to broaden his horizons.
Hatake Shibu looked like a student who had just received a valuable lesson.
“I understand.”
“Indeed, old ginger really is spicier.”
“I actually have another immature idea I’d like to discuss.”
Yoshida looked at Shibu in surprise.
“Oh?”
“I didn’t expect you to be able to draw one conclusion from another.”
“Go ahead.”
After all, Yoshida would also be taking a share of the profits.
The more money they made, the better.
“Why don’t we divide the toothpicks into several grades?”
“First, ones for ordinary civilians.”
“Then ones for samurai.”
“Then ones for minor nobles.”
“Then ones for major nobles.”
“How about these prices?”
“Fifty ryō for five hundred civilian-grade toothpicks.”
“Five hundred ryō for five hundred samurai-grade toothpicks.”
“Five thousand ryō for five hundred minor-noble-grade toothpicks.”
“Ten thousand ryō per toothpick for major nobles.”
“And one hundred thousand ryō per toothpick for the daimyo.”
Shibu rubbed his chest as he delivered those shocking prices, leaving even Yoshida stunned.
Good grief.
Yoshida had merely opened the door and intended to make a little money from the nobles.
He hadn’t expected Shibu to launch an all-out attack across every social class without leaving anyone out.
But Yoshida soon nodded with satisfaction.
“Good. You’re teachable!”
Now that’s what a proper businessman should be doing.
What kind of philanthropist was selling five hundred toothpicks for fifty ryō before?
“Are we being a little too ruthless?”
“One hundred thousand ryō!”
“That could buy so many bowls of ramen!”
Uchiha Obito hadn’t covered his chest, so he felt that something about this was wrong.
The price was simply too high.
The nobles might be extremely wealthy, but the thought of deceiving fools made Obito feel guilty.
“Smack!”
Hatake Shibu immediately slapped Obito across the face.
“What kind of stupid nonsense are you talking about?”
“We’re robbing the rich to help the poor!”
“We’re upholding justice on behalf of Heaven!”
“This is a good deed!”
“Business itself is the greatest form of charity!”
“Do you understand?”
Uchiha Obito was stunned by the slap.
Then Shibu’s words shocked him even more.
What kind of lunatic comes up with something like that?
How shameless do you have to be to say something like this?
Yoshida was equally dumbfounded.
Good grief.
It took him only a few minutes to surpass his teacher.
For the first time, Yoshida felt a faint trace of guilt.
Did I do something wrong?
It seems I’ve released something terrifying from inside this child.
What exactly will this mean for the people of the shinobi world?
Obito eventually came to his senses.
And the first emotion he felt wasn’t anger.
It was shame.
That’s right!
My heart is as clear as a mirror, and my actions are righteous!
I’m merely taking a little money from our noble lords.
What’s wrong with that?
They have so much money that they couldn’t possibly spend it all anyway. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
Wouldn’t it be better to give some of it to poor people like us?
At the very least, Obito felt that money sitting unused in a noble’s underground vault was better off being used to help him.
Once he figured out this logic, Obito’s eyes immediately became sharp.
He firmly strengthened his determination to become the second-richest man in the shinobi world.
Hatake Shibu looked at Obito, whose fighting spirit had been reignited, and nodded in satisfaction.
He then turned toward Old Man Yoshida.
“Grandpa, how about this?”
“I’ll go back and prepare some samples first.”
“I’ll come back tomorrow, and then we’ll discuss exactly how much I’ll sell them to you for.”
“How does that sound?”
Yoshida nodded somewhat blankly.
What had just happened had been a little too shocking for him.
He had never imagined that someone could change their position so quickly.
Just a few minutes ago, Shibu had looked like a philanthropist.
Now he had transformed into a capitalist.
Good grief.
Could this kid secretly be my illegitimate son?
Otherwise, how did he grasp the fundamentals of business so quickly?
After seeing Yoshida agree, Hatake Shibu happily left with Uchiha Obito.
They still had something to do.
It was already getting late.
They needed to finalize the designs and styles for the toothpicks before darkness fell.
After all, these were going to be sold to nobles.
The price didn’t matter.
But the quality absolutely had to be high.
They had to look impressive enough to make the nobles proud to show them off.
Otherwise, no one would buy them.
As a transmigrator, Hatake Shibu understood the art of selling packaging all too well.
Take mooncakes from his previous life, for example.
Their packaging could be incredibly elaborate.
Four or five layers of wrapping.
A gigantic box containing a single mooncake barely the size of one’s palm.
Whether the mooncake tasted good or not, the packaging alone told you it was expensive.
And don’t even think about negotiating.
Limited edition—9,999 pieces!
Buy it now or you’ll never get another chance!
Every year, they would sell out completely.
They were always in high demand.
Shibu intended to study the packaging techniques from his previous life and put some of those ideas to use.
The knowledge from his previous life was his most valuable asset in this life.
Once he became rich, he would definitely open a bookstore.
He would reproduce all the books he had read in his previous life and sell them in this world.
That would be another enormous source of income.
He refused to believe those authors from his previous life could somehow travel across worlds just to beat him up.
The more Shibu thought about it, the happier he became.
His business career was finally about to take off.
He only needed to take one more step forward.
His first fortune was within reach!